The Hollow Man (Rush Limbaugh, Cruz & Conservatism)

Hotgas.net ^ | March 13, 2016 | Joseph K

[CreviceTool]

For 26 years, Rush Lim­baugh has insisted that con­ser­v­a­tive val­ues, clearly and pas­sion­ately artic­u­lated, will win every time. By con­ser­v­a­tive val­ues Rush meant: God, coun­try, fam­ily, com­mu­nity, lib­erty, indi­vid­u­al­ism, per­sonal respon­si­bil­ity, lim­ited gov­ern­ment, and free mar­kets. Rea­gan was the model, and the promise: it had hap­pened once, and could hap­pen again.

Eas­ier said than done.

[hoosiermama]

Excellently said

Can’t tell if you were on Onyx list but didn’t want to miss anyone

[bigbob]

Excellent essay! Thank you for posting it, and if only the Cruz fanboys here would take the time to read it, they could perhaps understand what many of the rest of us are not articulate enough to explain or just tick them off trying (like when we call them fanboys).

Trump starts and ends every speech with the words “I love you!”. Now when is the last time you’ve heard a politician say that to a group of people? I’m not going to make the obvious mistake of saying Jesus so also, but both Jesus and Trump see the people in the crowd, not just themselves.

[onyx]

^5

[proust]

Brilliantly illustrates the rise and fall of Ted Cruz.

[over3Owithabrain]

Great, great read.

[navymom1]

What do you mean fear losing Donald Trump? He may not take Ohio, and that will be narrowly close, but he has become the leader of a very strong movement. There are too many of us that will fight all the harder for him because of what he is campaigning on.

[TheCipher]

Hahahahah iI thought I was the only one who caught Cruz complaining about Trump’s tariff threat and said the solution was his tax on imports

Me too :-)

[PJBankard]

Bookmark for later without saying anything. (My Assumption)

[Randy Larsen]

Awesome read and I agree 100%.

[FredZarguna]

Yet another blog rant telling us that conservatism itself doesn't matter. Principle doesn't matter. All that matters is belief in The Ultimate Leader. At one time -- it seems long ago now, but in reality it was only a few weeks -- we were being told that The Ultimate Leader really was a conservative, that despite his past, he'd undergone a profound, Reaganite conversion over the last few years.

Now we're being told that Reagan is yesterday, that conservatism is passe because The Ultimate Leader has simply said too many things in the course of this campaign that make it very clear he isn't a conservative at all. So none of us should be conservatives any longer, either. We should simply trust in The Ultimate Leader. So this pathetic screed concludes.

Nope. Not going there. The whole rest of Free Republic can drink up as far as I'm concerned, but I stand for something. And it isn't what some man believes today, or the new thing he believes tomorrow.

[SamAdams76]

Good read. The deeper we get into this election cycle, the more concerned I get about Ted Cruz and his blind ambition. He was my strong number 2 choice behind Trump and was pushing him to be Trump's running mate but I'm backing away from that now.

To be that power hungry is not good.

[Ronin]

It’s too early to tell, IMHO, if the damage Cruz has done to himself in the last couple weeks is fatal, but there is no doubt in my mind he has shot himself in the foot — big time. Unless he wakes up and starts smelling the coffee he’s finished. Almost every Cruz supporter I have talked to has expressed acknowledgment, if not admiration, for the fact that Trump is the only candidate out there on our side who is willing to fight the Leftists using the same tactics they use against us.

Trump was the victim here. No. Actually, the thousands of tax paying, hard working Americans who traveled for hours to listen to Trump, who paid their own money for a chance to hear him speak, who attempted to engage in the political process in a law abiding manner, are the victims.

The Leftist political machine shut down a major Trump campaign event at the trivial cost of a few busloads of fanatics, a willingness to engage in cut-throat extremism, and absolutely no fear of media censure — and they have by and large gotten away with it.

The willingness of Cruz to piously denounce Trump in the aftermath of what should be a very serious wakeup call as to what he can expect if somehow Trump is sidelined is as stupid as it is incomprehensible. Does he really think that if, somehow, Trump is taken out, all these Leftist Strumptruppen are just going to head back to Mommy’s basement, fire up fatties, and chill?

At this point, every single current and former candidate on the Right should be linking arms and telling the Left that actions like this will have consequences and they cannot expect to attack and disrupt our political events without meeting some serious, effective, in-your-face resistance.

But nope...

As I said, I am angry, I am disappointed, and I want Cruz to know it. I am not throwing over on him — yet. He can come back from this, but he’s going to have to eat a healthy-heaping-helping of humble pie and get his head out of his ass ASAP. My rope is definitely fraying.

[LongWayHome]

Describes the downfall of Cruz perfectly. It’s not so much what Cruz did to Trump, Trump always had his number, it’s what he did to us, the voters....he threw us to the leftists wolves to be devoured. I loathe this weakness in Cruz. It’s inexcusable.

[Tupelo]

I have no idea who Joseph K is, but he articulates exactly what I think of Cruz.
Funny, I started the article thinking it was a criticism of Rush Limbaugh, but it really was a complete undressing and unwrapping of Ted Cruz.
WOW!

As I told a friend today in my attempt to explain what happened to Cruz.
His Ivy League education finally was exposed.
I have never met an Ivy Leaguer that did not think he/she was very superior to us Flyover Folks. But it took a long contentious campaign to finally draw it out of Mr. Cruz.

[timestax]

[bigbob]

re-read the part about trust, you obviously missed it

[M. Thatcher]

THANKS SO MUCH for the ping, onyx!

One of the best analyses I've read this campaign season.

[PJBankard]

Excellent Article.

[digger48]

I think you missed the point of the article. Leaving aside the criticism of Teds judgement....

Cruz is no Reagan.

He could have been, but he simply doesn’t connect with voters.

[carjic]

Most of FR but not all. I still am and will always be conservative. These people all remind me of Obamabots. Nothing has to make sense. They can rationalize anything away.